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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stole pole position from McLaren’s Lando Norris in a gripping and surprising qualifying session at the British Grand Prix.
Verstappen dashed the hopes of the British fans in the packed grandstands after Norris went fastest with three drivers still to set their final times.
One of them was Verstappen, who grabbed pole by 0.241 seconds.
Norris led a McLaren two-three ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri, for McLaren’s best qualifying for years.
The revived McLarens, sporting an upgrade that had vaulted the car up the grid when Norris alone ran it in Austria last weekend, beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in fourth and fifth and the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in sixth and seventh.
Williams driver Alex Albon took eighth, ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine completing the top 10.
The session started wet and progressively dried throughout. Timing the runs, and nailing the lap when it mattered, was key.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez fell on the wrong side of the line, knocked out in the first session.
The Mexican will start down in 16th, missing out on the top 10 on the grid for the fifth race in a row as his difficult season continues.
The fans arrived at Silverstone in huge numbers from Friday through to Sunday
Through the difficult running, Verstappen remained serene. The Dutchman did not top the first session, which was stopped and restarted with three minutes to go with rain spitting and in which Norris went fastest.
And he made his life harder when he broke his front wing leaving the pits, catching it on the wall opposite the garage, something he was able to make a joke out of later.
But Verstappen was quickest in the second session and again on the first runs in the final top-10 shootout, when he was the only driver on new tyres.
On the final laps, Leclerc and Sainz got to within a few hundredths of a second of Verstappen’s time, but it was Norris who finally displaced him, to cheers from the crowd, only for the world champion to dash home hopes.
Norris said: “Pretty insane. My last lap was a good lap. I could hear Zak [Brown, chief executive] on the radio on the in-lap which was the best thing ever.
“It’s always Max. He always ruins everything for everyone.”
Piastri’s third place was by far the best result of his fledging F1 career – he is in his first season after McLaren took a chance on the Australian after a stellar junior career.
“What a qualifying session,” Piastri said. “Almost out in Q1 but the car was a rocket ship in Q2 and Q3. And I felt like I put a decent lap together. Massive result for the team, to have both of us up there is great.”
Piastri, who was 0.131secs off Norris’ time, had fitted to his car for the first time this weekend the upgrade Norris debuted in Austria, while Norris continued with it and also had a new front wing.
McLaren had always hoped the upgrade would turn around their season. They started the year having admitted they had missed their development targets and needed to change design philosophy.
They were pleased by the performance of the car in Austria, where Norris finished fourth, but were keeping expectations in check after that race because it has always been a good track for them. But Silverstone seems to have confirmed they have made a significant step forwards.
Ferrari challenged Verstappen for pole in Austria but expected to be a little further from the pace this weekend because their car’s main weakness is in fast corners.
Leclerc ended up 0.416secs slower than Verstappen and just 0.012secs ahead of Sainz, with Russell a further 0.007secs adrift, and Hamilton 0.056secs behind him.